Movistar’s 2016 in review

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January
January brought triumph and near tragedy to Movistar Team, with overall victory for Dayer Quintana at Argentina’s seven-stage Tour de San Luis. But the younger Quintana brother’s career-best win came only after a terrible crash suffered by team-mate Adriano Malori.

The Italian’s return to health and later to the peloton after he was flung from his bike at 60kph by a defect in the road is one of the most inspiring stories of 2016.

February
Valverde opened his account for 2016 with a fourth victory at the Ruta del Sol. Bala’s’ victory served early notice of his intent to the strongest riders in the sport that even with the approach of his 36th birthday, he would not be taking things easy.

The month ended with the further good news that Adriano Malori had made sufficient medical progress to continue his recovery close to the team’s headquarters in Pamplona.

March
The Volta a Catalunya provided the opening chapter of two compelling stories that would last the entire season. Team leader Nairo Quintana struck an early and telling blow on his rivals for the Grand Tours by claiming overall victory at this prestigious, week-long stage race; one of the most significant of the early season.

April
Nairo produced another display of dominance over his Grand Tour rivals by winning the Tour de Romandie, only six weeks after his triumph at the Volta a Catlunya. In between, he finished third overall at the Tour of the Basque Country. There was little doubt who was king of the stage racers by the end of Spring.

Not to be outdone, Valverde won the three-stage Vuelta a Castilla y León, before racking up a record-breaking fourth victory at La Flèche Wallonne, one of the most prestigious Spring Classics. The spirit of healthy competition between the team’s two leaders was already bearing impressive fruit.

The leaders, however, were only part of a joyful spring, however. Ion Izagirre won the GP Miguel Indurain, Lobato won the Circuit de la Sarthe, Visconti won the Klasika Primavera de Amorebieta, and Betancur won the opening stage of the Vuelta Castilla y León.

May
Alejandro Valverde led the team into the Giro d’Italia, in search of a new challenge at the age of 36. That he should finish on the podium after three weeks of racing at his first attempt at the Italian Grand Tour speaks volumes about Bala.

The highlight of Valverde’s debut Giro came with a victory on stage 16, seeing off the Dutchman Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo), who would become a contender for overall victory, in the most spectacular parcours from Bressanone to Andalo.

 

June
With his thoughts now firmly fixed on his “Sueño Amarillo”, or “yellow dream”, Nairo Quintana added the finishing touch to his preparations for the Tour de France by winning the Route du Sud, a mountainous French stage race. Quintana’s overall victory capped a strong campaign for the Blues in which Ion Izagirre won the queen stage.

Alex Dowsett banished the disappointment of missing the Giro d’Italia by winning the British time-trial title for a fifth time. Nelson Oliveira won a fourth Portuguese time-trial title, while Ion Izagirre followed up a time-trial victory at the Tour de Suisse by adding the Spanish time-trial title.

National titles were not the only races Movistar Team won in June, however. Jesús Herrada, a former Spanish road race champion, won the second stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné to claim his first WorldTour victory.

July

July saw Nairo Quintana make a courageous pursuit of his Sueño Amarillo, but winning a race like the Tour de France requires everything to proceed perfectly. Unable to reproduce the form of his dominant spring campaign, Quintana hung tough and slowly clawed his way back into contention. By Paris, he had earned a spot on the podium behind Chris Froome (Team Sky) and Romain Bardet (Ag2r-La Mondiale).

While missing out on the main goal, Movistar walked claimed the team prize, and Ion Izagirre won on stage 18 from Mègeve with a display of real panache, descending fearlessly into Morzine on rain-slicked roads to take the win.

August

Movistar Team provided four of the five-man squad sent to represent Spain at the Olympic Games in Rio. And Jonathan Castroviejo provided further evidence that he would soon be approaching his very best form by finishing fourth in the men’s time-trial.

Movistar Team’s thoughts, however, were firmly focussed on La Vuelta España. Nairo Quintana declared his intentions early, but the team received a massive boost when, just days from the start in Galicia, Valverde announced that he would ride his fifth consecutive Grand Tour and aim to become only the third man in history to record top-10 finishes in all three of cycling’s three-week races.

Only two tenths of a second separated the teams on the opening stage team time-trial to Castrelo do Miño, but after several days of cat-and-mouse racing, Quintana delivered a telling blow on Froome and his men on stage 15.

The Colombian rode clear after just 8km, driving a 14-man break that included team-mates Jonathan Castroviejo and Rubén Fernandez, as well as multiple Grand Tour winner Alberto Contador (Tinkoff). Quintana ended the stage with an advantage of 3’37” on Froome, and after a watchful five-day finale, rode into Madrid in the red jersey to win the second Grand Tour of his career.

September

Quintana’s victory provided sufficient evidence of the continued success of Endura’s partnership with Movistar to convince founder Jim McFarlane to extend the Scottish brand’s support for Movistar for a further year.

October

From the heat of a Spanish summer at La Vuelta to the heat of the desert for the world championships in Qatar, Jonathan Castroviejo again delivered a superb performance to finish on the podium.

The final Monument Classic of the season – Il Lombardia, or The Race of the Falling Leaves – brought yet another top two finish for Alejandro Valverde and with it a fourth consecutive UCI world number one ranking for Movistar Team.

November

Endura unveiled Movistar Team’s 2017 kit in London, with Cycling Weekly, among several others, noting that it was the peloton’s classiest offering for the new season.

November is typically the month in the cycling year when new signings are confirmed, and the team announced the strengthening of its squad for 2017 with the addition of Italian veteran Daniele Bennati, Spanish riders Calros Barbero and Víctor de la Parte, and young talent Richard Carpaz, who next season will become the first Ecuadorian to ride in the WorldTour.